Supporting international students in UK Higher Education:
a staff development course
Participant’s pack
Introduction
This pack is designed to be used by teaching and support staff in HE institutions who wish to understand the needs of international students better and improve the ways in which they can be supported on both a personal and institutional level. It encourages teachers in higher education to reflect on their own practice regarding support for international students, and suggests ways in which support for such students can be improved and embedded within the context of their own higher education institution. The materials have been developed to be delivered over approximately six day-long workshops, and they can constitute a Masters-level module which might form part of a course such as a Certificate of Academic Practice; or be part of a professional development course; or alternatively, each unit could be used independently as a one-off personal development activity.
How to use these materials
The materials in this pack have been designed to be delivered in workshops forming a discrete course (although they do not have to be delivered in this way). This booklet contains resources for workshop participants. Facilitator’s information is in an accompanying booklet. All reading material and online activities can be retrieved though links within each booklet and can also be downloaded from:
The materials are divided into six topic areas, each consisting of materials to accompany the workshop sessions: links to related reading materials, reflective Portfolio Activities, some SynthesisingActivities to connect the units and a link to an accompanying online resource. While the topic areas may be presented consecutively as a unified course, they have also been designed to ‘stand alone’, making it possible to focus only on particular topics, as desired. The online resources can be used on their own for independent study or in a blended way alongside the paper-based materials.
The Portfolio Activities are designed to facilitate reflection and analysis and may be used formatively by participants or as part of an assessed course. This last will depend on the context in which this course is delivered and by individual institutional standards and requirements.
Essential background reading
There are several key publications which underpin the creation of these materials. It is recommended that participants become familiar with them:
- The Department for Education and Skills paper Putting the World into World-Class Education[1] (DfES 2004) which outlines the three goals of that strategy:
- establishing the global contexts of all forms of education;
- the creation of international partnerships;
- identifying the links to be made from education, training, and research in universities to trade and investment.
- The UKCISA (formally UKCOSA) report New Horizons: The Experiences of International Students in UK Further Education Colleges[2] (UKCOSA 2006), which included the recommendation that ‘colleges should … ensure that there are appropriate opportunities for staff development for all those in contact with international students, as well as encouraging the sharing of creative approaches to teaching and learning’.
- Higher EducationAcademy materials which call for ‘development of initiatives to enhance the learning experience of international students’[3] and the ‘promotion of staff development activities’.[4]
- The UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education, which has been developed ‘for institutions to apply to their professional development programmes and activities and thus demonstrate that professional standards for teaching and supporting learning are being met’.[5]
Participant’s resources and links to reading material
UNIT ONE
The UK Professional Standards Framework: applying it to support for international students
Accompanying online resource:
The UK Professional Standards Framework: applying it to support for international students
Introduction
Higher education staff in the 21st century are having to cope with an increasingly diverse student body which includes significant numbers of international students. Differences in cultural background and student expectations of the academic experience make new and challenging demands on academic staff. The following activities will use the UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education as a basis for the exploration of participants’ own practice in the teaching or support of international students. The Framework has been developed by the Higher Education Academy.
Each section has an activity that can be incorporated into a Portfolio for personal or assessment purposes. There is also a concluding‘SynthesisingActivity’.
Learning objectives
•To examine the UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Educationand consider how it might be applied to international students.
• To explore the nature of action research.
• To sketch out an initial personal development plan concerning supporting international students.
Reading material
Pre-workshopreading: 1
The following texts will be referred to in the activities, and should be read prior to the workshop.
The UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education
Pre-workshop reading: 2
P. Sander (2004).‘How we should research our students – part one’
Pre-workshop reading: 3
C. Todhunter (2001). ‘Undertaking action research: negotiating the road ahead’
Further reading
Jenkins, A., Healey, M., Zetter, R. (2007).Linking Teaching and Research in Disciplines and Departments.York: Higher EducationAcademy.
Masters, J. (1995).'The history of action research', in I. Hughes (ed.) Action Research Electronic Reader. The University of Sydney.
Trahar, S. (2007).The International Higher Education Landscape - Some Theories and Working Practices.Bristol: ESCALATE Education Subject Centre.
Portfolio Activities
UNIT ONE: Portfolio Activity 1
The UK Professional Standards Framework: applying it to support for international students
The UK Professional Standards Framework
(This activity may be printed out and added to your Portfolio)
Which of the six areas of activity in the framework relate to your own work? For those areas which are applicable, can you think of one example concerning your own practice which involves international students?
- Design and planning of learning activities and/or programmes of study
- Teaching and/or supporting student learning
- Assessment and giving feedback to learners
- Developing effective environments and student support and guidance
- Integration of scholarship, research and professional activities with teaching and supporting learning
- Evaluation of practice and continuing professional development
UNIT ONE:Portfolio Activity 2
The UK Professional Standards Framework: applying it to support for international students
Exploring action research
(This activity may be printed out and added to your Portfolio)
Many texts discussing action research talk about it as being ‘cyclical’ or ‘spiral’. The implication is that this is a never-ending reiterative process wherein evaluation of the effectiveness of previous activities such as developing new courses or materials – together with an ongoing process of keeping up-to-date with wider professional developments – leads to amendments of future courses, which then themselves will be evaluated to produce refined ideas for further course design. Look at the six areas of activity from the UK Professional Standards Frameworkfor Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education,
- Design and planning of learning activities and/or programmes of study
- Teaching and/or supporting student learning
- Assessment and giving feedback to learners
- Developing effective environments and student support and guidance
- Integration of scholarship, research and professional activities with teaching and supporting learning
- Evaluation of practice and continuing professional development
Referring to your own work, can you create a diagrammatic representation (which does not have to be a cycle or a spiral) that reflects your own continuing professional development concerning the support of international students? This may include both actual and intended activities.
UNIT ONE: Portfolio Activity 3
The UK Professional Standards Framework: applying it to support for international students
Action research, conflict and change
(This activity may be printed out and added to your Portfolio)
If you were to undertake action research in your institution related to supporting international students – recalling that action research aims to bring about change as well as understanding – who are the different stakeholders you would need to involve? Could they have contrasting expectations of what could be achieved?Are there liable to be points of conflict?
Stakeholder one and possible conflicts
Stakeholder two and possible conflicts
Stakeholder three and possible conflicts
Stakeholder four and possible conflicts
UNIT ONE: SynthesisingActivity
The UK Professional Standards Framework: applying it to support for international students
The ‘Professional values’ section in the UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education lists four commitments related to professional standards (along with ‘respect for individual learners’): can you use the outcomes of the three activities in this unit to identify your personal commitment concerning supporting international students in each of these areas? Can you sketch out an initial personal development plan describing how you intend to do the following:
- Incorporate the process and outcomes of research, scholarship and/or professional practice.
- Develop learning communities.
- Encourage participation, acknowledging diversity and promoting equality of opportunity.
- Continue your own professional development and evaluation of practice.
UNIT TWO
Designing and planning learning activities and programmes of study
Accompanying online resource:
Designing and planning learning activities and programmes of study
Introduction
The academic experience of most international students in their home countries differs widely from that which they encounter in the UK, and this difference starts to be felt at the base level of course and learning activity design and presentation. The planning and design of courses and learning activities is the first area addressed in the ‘UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education’ and is the keystone of good academic practice.
This unit will explore the process of course design typically followed in UK universities, and encourage reflection on possible implications of the outcomes of this process on students who are new to this culture of learning.
Learning objectives
• To examine the first area of activity in the ‘UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education’.
• To explore how international students can be introduced to the expectations of new cultures of learning.
• To build up a model of reflective practice concerning support for international students.
Reading material
Pre-workshopreading: 1
- ‘The framework for higher education qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - January 2001’
i)skim-read The Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - January 2001.
ii)Make a draft of Portfolio Activity1 which will form a basis for discussion in the workshop itself.
Questions for reflection:
Reflect on how it relates to ONE course that you are involved with.
1.First, read the ‘Executive Summary’ to survey the framework in general. As you read the summary, note how the five levels it uses describe a rising scale of knowledge/understanding; and similarly a rising scale of employability qualities.
2.Second, skim read ‘Part 1: The framework’. Note that it explains that each descriptor is in two parts: the first part describes demonstrable outcomes and is of interest to course designers; the second part describes abilities and is of interest to employers.
3.Third,skim read ‘Part 2: Specific guidelines’. As you read think about one course or programme that you are involved with and what the intended outcomes of that course are.
4.Fourthly, skim ‘Annex 1 Qualification descriptors’. Select one level (C, I, H, M, D) appropriate to one specific course or programme that you are involved with in order to complete the Portfolio Activity.
Pre-workshop reading: 2
- Explanation and examples of benchmarking statements at:
Participants should select one or two examples of benchmarking statements which is related to an area of their own activity to bring to the workshop.
Select one or two examples of benchmarking statements which is related to your own area of activity to bring to the workshop
- D. Burnapp (2007). EAP: Not just English for Academic Purposes but also Epistemologically Appropriate Practice
Pre-workshop reading: 3
- ‘Guidelines for preparing programme specifications’ at
Portfolio Activities
UNIT TWO: Portfolio Activity 1
Designing and planning learning activities and programmes of study
The Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – January 2001
(This activity may be printed out and added to your Portfolio)
Referring to the ‘Qualification descriptors’, give at least one example from your chosen course for each aspect of that descriptor. For example at level (H) there are five outcomes to be achieved (i – v) and three abilities (a – c), so try to think of one specific example of how your course matches that aspect of the descriptor.
Outcomes/abilities / Example from my courseUNIT TWO: Portfolio Activity 2
Designing and planning learning activities and programmes of study
Subject Benchmark Statements and Epistemologically Appropriate Practice
(This activity may be printed out and added to your Portfolio)
Go to the QAA Benchmark page:
Select a benchmark statement which is related to an area of your own activity and read through it noting any descriptions of required behaviours which you think may be specific to this culture of learning, and which hence may be unfamiliar and so require overt exploration – ‘unpicking’ – with students from other cultures of learning.
Then write a summary using the headings below of what these specific behaviours are, make suggestions of how these behaviours can be explored with students, and also describe which other stakeholders within your institution would need to be involved with such actions.
Specific behaviours
Methods to explore them
Involvement of other stakeholders
UNIT TWO: Portfolio Activity 3
Designing and planning learning activities and programmes of study
Preparing programme specifications
(This activity may be printed out and added to your Portfolio)
Read the QAA Guidelines for preparing programme specifications:
Read again section 4 of Annex 1: ‘How do we expect our students to achieve and demonstrate the intended outcomes?’
This section of the document discusses methods of both delivery and assessment, but for this activity you should consider only methods of delivery. Section 4 describes how different teaching methods are better for different types of learning, and the methods it refers to are listed in the chart below. For each of the methods which are used in courses you are familiar with (and any other methods your courses use but which are not included in the list), make notes concerning the demands that these place on students, and whether any of these methods may require specific explanation or support for some international students.
Teaching method / Demands and supportLectures
Seminars
Directed study of textbooks
Directed study of journal articles
Project work
Group learning activities
Laboratory activity
Workshop activity
Field-based activity
Workplace placement
UNIT THREE
Supporting international students in new cultures of learning
Accompanying online resource:
Supporting international students in new cultures of learning
Introduction
This unit will explore some of the problems encountered by international students studying in UK universities, and then suggest several ways in which learning support might be delivered. The activities will explore debates concerning cultures of learning; case studies of supporting international students,and research concerning international students.
Learning objectives
• To examine links between language, culture, learning styles, and individuality.
• To explore case studies of how international students can be introduced to, or supported in, the expectations of new cultures of learning.
• To design an appropriate framework of support for international students in our own areas/institutions.
Reading material
Pre-workshop reading: 1
Debates concerning cultures of learning
1. Linguistic relativity
A theoretical framework which examines the ways that language influences how people perceive and hence act on the world, it explores the extent to which different languages cut up the world in different ways, including concepts such as time and place. For Whorf (2000 [1940]), language is ‘the shaper of ideas’. This strong view of linguistic relativity is now seen as too deterministic, for it would follow that the language learnt in childhood would set the way one was able to observe, remark, and comment on everything. Slobin (1996) proposes a weaker version: a person’s language will bring them to pay particular attention to certain features or aspects of events, but thoughts are not constrained by language.
2. Vygotskian psychology
Lantolf (1999) describes ‘the power of the mental organization set up during apprenticeship into one’s native language’, whilst the child engages in dialogue and internalises and appropriates ‘the organizational patterns (concepts) of the culture’.
3. Social construction
Bruner and Haste (1987) link the Vygotskian view of learning to the social construction of reality proposed by Berger and Luckmann (1966):
‘the child makes sense of the culture in which he or she is reared, coming to appreciate the commonsense knowledge which is available within the culture… expressed directly through language in the form of rules, but even more extensively through the style and use of language, the selection of categories deemed appropriate for classifying different behaviours, and forms of address which communicate and reproduce the relations between persons of different ranks and roles.’ (Bruner and Haste 1987, p.5)
4. Contrastive rhetoric hypothesis
A suggestion that the structure of texts produced in different cultures reflects differences in thought patterns, which was first proposed by Kaplan (1966). Zamel (1997) accepts that first culture is an influence on writing in a second language, but fears that too great an emphasis on contrastive rhetoric may make educators think of students as being only products of their cultures.
5. Cultural models